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In the wake of the Occupy protests, the editors of Brooklyn-based n+1 gathered together letters addressed to employees of the largest American Too Big To Fail that were collected by Occupy The Boardroom. I was asked to write an appendix, cataloging and analyzing the major lawsuits, prosecutions, and investigations into these TBTF banks by both government agencies and private litigants to date. All of these cases were resolved through settlements, most of which did not require the banks to admit wrongdoing. The appendix provided context for the individual letters comprising the bulk of the book.

While Occupy protests were taking place across the nation in Fall of 2011, a lone website, “Occupy the Boardroom,” invited Americans who would never make it to an occupation to write down their beliefs about the financial system and their experiences with loans and banking. 8,000 letters from individuals appeared in six weeks. Signed by those affected by recent history—Democrats and Republicans, property-owners and struggling families, businesspeople and retirees, immigrants and Mayflower descendants, religious leaders and fervent capitalists, and a lot of bank employees past and present—these letters said what Americans have gotten from our banks, what they believe, and how they think things should change.